Networks such as frame relay clouds include interconnected network devices, such as switches, that channel data packets between a source location and a destination. The switches are assigned a logical port (LPort) address by a network management server that orchestrates the operations of the network. In a frame relay cloud, the network management server provides routing information to the switches enabling the switches to route a data packet with a particular header address to an appropriate LPort as specified in the routing information. The network management server groups information including the routing and LPort information for network data paths of a particular host in a management information base (MIB).
The data packets from a host are delivered to the network cloud through a physical connection such as a T1 line that links to a switch of the network. The remote device that communicates with the host through the network cloud also has a physical connection to a switch of the network. The communication path between the host and the remote device that passes through the network cloud is known as a virtual circuit. In frame relay, a permanent virtual circuit (PVC) exists because the switch of the host's physical circuit always sends and receives data packets through the same path leading to the switch of the remote's physical circuit.
The physical circuit between the host or remote device and the LPort is susceptible to failure. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a backup physical circuit to establish the LPort should the primary physical circuit fail. Ideally, the LPort of the backup physical circuit, when activated by the management server, provides some or all of the PVCs that were provided by the LPort of the primary physical circuit. However, conventional setup of the backup LPort service requires that every PVC built to the primary physical circuit's MIB be separately built to the backup physical circuit's MIB.
Building PVCs to a MIB requires that several pieces of information for each PVC be correctly entered into the management server that controls the operation of the switches of the primary and backup physical circuits. One particular host may have hundreds of PVCs or more extending to hundreds of remote devices. Building the backup service for the host can take many hours and becomes very tedious. One incorrect entry for the MIB of a backup physical circuit can cause one or more PVCs of the backup service to be inoperable. If a backup PVC is inoperable, a technician must scan the PVC entries for the backup MIB to find the incorrectly built PVC.
Hosts using frame relay, such as bank mainframes communicating with remote automatic teller machines, often cannot afford the downtime necessary to test the PVC builds of the backup physical circuit prior to its activation. The downtime necessary to repair the primary physical circuit or correct entries for the backup service is also unaffordable. The efficacy of the backup LPort service is vital in such cases, and an incorrectly built PVC in the backup service can become costly once backup service is necessary.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method of creating backup LPort service without individually rebuilding every PVC of the primary physical circuit that is desired for the backup physical circuit.